A Queenstown man stuck in the international terminal of Auckland Airport due to the flood emergency says it has been a “s***show”, while two women travellers recently holidaying in the South are also upset at the lack of communication from airport staff or airlines.
A state of emergency has been declared in Auckland after an "unprecedented" amount of rain since yesterday, with two people confirmed to have died. People had to be rescued from their flooded homes and there's widespread disruption to transport, including roads closed, and flights diverted to other countries.
Auckland Airport said it would reopen for domestic arrivals and departures from 12pm today.
But the international terminal will not reopen for departing flights until 5pm - apart from the three aircraft already at the gates - and there will be no arriving flights until Sunday at 4.30am.
MetService has issued a red heavy rain warning for the region after a record 24 hours of rainfall - 249mm, smashing the previous 24-hour record of 161.8mm in February 1985. The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union said more than 2000 emergency calls were received by dispatchers overnight.
The Queenstown man said he counted about 1700 people - including many families with young children, and older people - who had to stay upstairs in the terminal on the international side last night.
The lack of communication had been shocking, he said, and they remained at the airport this morning, still with little to no information about what was happening.
People slept on seats, floors, bars, tables - anywhere they could find a space, the man said.
He said he and his partner were in their plane, ready to take off for a holiday when the water on the runway started building up and crew fixing runway lights.
After about 90 minutes, it was clear the plane was going nowhere and all passengers returned to the terminal.
That was about 10.30pm. The few staff inside the terminal had no information to give passengers and there was no announcement over the PA until 11.30pm, and then only to say there was no information to share.
There had only been two or three announcements since then, none providing any updates on the situation to those waiting, the man said this morning.
People only had their carry-on bags with them and many had not eaten because they had expected to eat on their flights.
Shops closed as they ran out of food, about midnight, though McDonald's lasted until the early hours.
There was no food provided by the airport until 4am - and then that was a packet of potato chips and a bottle of water. People who pestered got blankets just before 5am, but there were not enough for everyone. No nappies were supplied until 6am.
Other than the pilot on the plane, who had been “excellent”, there had been little to zero communication from Air New Zealand or airport staff in charge, the man said.
The very few staff there knew nothing about what was happening, including staff who arrived on shift this morning apparently completely unaware people had been stuck in the terminal overnight.
People inside the terminal were moved this morning back through customs into New Zealand territory and told airline staff would meet them on the other side, only to find staff on customs side did not know what was happening, though police staff seemed to think airport staff would not be there until 11.30am.
People had been fairly patient until this morning, when hunger and frustration at a lack of information was starting to boil over, the man said.
The main issue had been the complete lack of communication.
“Someone should have come in there at 4am and told us this was a disaster and reassured us that someone was in charge and a response was under way," he said.
“I expect they would have run training scenarios for this and they have not delivered from that training.”
His travel agent had not been able to find out any information either, though he had this morning had a text from Air New Zealand saying it could be another 48 hours before their plane could leave.
All hotels near the airport were fully booked, so they, along with the many other people there in transit had little choice but to stay put.
The situation was unbelievable, and he did feel sorry for the staff who were left behind to deal with the upset hordes.
“This Is the biggest airport in New Zealand and an international airport and there is no communication. I have never experienced anything quite like it.”
The man said Auckland Airport chief executive Carrie Hurihanganui was left trying to escape after doing television interviews at the airport, when the general public started asking questions - forcing a communications manager to intervene.
Members of the public, especially those with young families, had been left frustrated and tempers were heightening as staff encourage affected passengers to refresh their airline apps, he said.
'Bitterly disappointed' at lack of care
Travellers Emma and Sarah Hart were due to return home to the United Kingdom yesterday after a journey that included visiting the Kepler Track in the Fiordland National Park, Queenstown and their brother in Auckland.
Their Qatar Airways flight had been set to leave about 6.30pm, but after boarding about 5.30pm they sat on the tarmac for about five hours.
At 10pm, they were told they would take off shortly, but soon afterwards passengers had to get off the plane.
The women spent the night in the international terminal, until they were told to come out about 7am today.
Airport and airline staff seemed to be able to give them little information, and police told them they were not sure why they had been taken out of the safe area.
Emma said she fell asleep about 4am and woke to an announcement there was food and water available, which sparked a big surge of people trying to get to the packaged chips and biscuits.
‘‘It was carnage,’’ Emma said.
By 10.15am today, they were outside the terminal trying to arrange accommodation in Auckland and waiting to hear from their airline.
They ended up staying with her brother as they were told most accommodation in the city was full due to the Sir Elton John concert.
They said they've received little contact from Qatar Airways, other than a printed letter which was passed around in the terminal, assuring them they would be re-booked on the next available flight. No accommodation was offered.
While understanding that natural disasters happened, she was ‘‘bitterly disappointed’’ by the lack of care, Emma said.
‘‘It’s the lack of communication I really, really struggle with,’’ she said.
Domestic flights resume
Air New Zealand says it's working through "significant flight disruptions" on its network after heavy rain and flooding closed the Auckland Domestic and International terminals.
Overnight, 12 international services due into Auckland had to be diverted to other ports, including other countries.
"This will cause significant flow-on effects while the airline works through getting customers on those services to their original destinations and our crew and planes back where they need to be. This may take a few days to recover," Air New Zealand said in a statement.
Captain David Morgan, the airline's chief operational integrity and safety officer, said domestic flights in and out of Auckland resumed from 12pm today.
“As the airline works to process the backlog of customers and flights, the priority is to get our domestic customers who need to travel urgently to where they need to go. Customers needing to travel can rebook online or via the Air NZ app. Those who don’t have urgent travel are being encouraged to make full use of our flexibility policies,” Capt Morgan said.
"The airline is advising those with non-urgent travel between now and Monday 30th January 2023 to make use of the flexibility policy. Customers can either hold their fare in credit or rebook in the same class of travel between Saturday 28th January 2023 and Monday 6th February 2023 without fare difference, penalty or service fees.
"Customers can easily opt into credit via the Air New Zealand app or website in the Manage Booking tab, by selecting request a credit. They can also use the app or website to change their flights to another date and have their change fee waived, though a fare difference may apply."
While Auckland Airport is scheduled to open its international terminal from 5pm today, Air New Zealand said there was still "a lot of work to do assess whether flying scheduled departures tonight is possible".
“International flights in and out of Auckland are more complex than domestic, with many parts of the aviation ecosystem needing to be ready as well. This includes airport security, systems to ticket and process customers, and biosecurity and baggage operations.”
An update on the airline’s international flights would be made later today.
“The flooding has had a huge impact our Auckland operations. We're working on getting customers to their final destinations and getting our crew and aircraft back in the right place. It might take a few days to get everything back on track, and we thank our customers in advance for their patience and understanding during this challenging time," Capt Morgan said.
“We’re doing everything in our power to minimise the impact on our customers and get everyone to their destinations as quickly and safely as possible. Our top priority at this time is the safety and wellbeing of our customers and hardworking employees. We’re working closely with airport authorities and other agencies to manage the situation and keep everyone informed of the latest developments.”
Advice for customers booked to travel:
- The Air New Zealand app is the easiest way for customers to stay up to date with flight details and changes
- Most customers are able to self-serve via the Manage Booking tab on the Air New Zealand website
- Impacted customers will be notified and rebooked to the next best alternative over the next 48 hours
- As the contact centre is experiencing extremely high volumes of calls we ask that only those with travel over the next 24 hours contact us directly.
- The airline’s travel alerts page has the most up to date information on operating flights - our contact centre team do not have any more information than this
- If you are travelling out of Auckland, please do not travel to the airport until you receive an update that your flight is going ahead
Customers who booked through a travel agent or third-party online agent should contact them directly about making changes to their bookings or credit validity, Air New Zealand advised.
"Air New Zealand would like to thank customers for their patience and support while it works through these significant disruptions. The airline is focused on managing these impacts for our customer and will not be able to provide specific flight details or impacted customer numbers at this time."
- By Oscar Francis and staff reporter
